Cairo - new political party of the Muslim Brotherhood will field candidates in half of the parliamentary seats in the first post-revolutionary elections to the Egypt, the leaders announced Saturday.
After years of be banned for life policy and persecuted by the former President Hosni Mubarak, the official launch of the freedom and the Party of Justice of the Group was a historic moment.
Leaders portrayed the party as inclusive, say Christians and women can join. According to Egyptian law, the party is officially civilian, non-religious and is independent of the group. The leaders also repeated a commitment earlier do not run a candidate in the presidential elections.
MONITOR QUIZ: Quiz of news Weekly for 21-25 April 2011
But plans to 50 per cent of parliamentary seats for the competition will be disturbing for young secular and liberal-leaning activists who have been a major force in the revolution. They fear that the brotherhood, Egypta€ ? s démêlera group, dominate the Parliament and to impose Islamic ideas on population. The leaders had said earlier that the group could challenge only about 30 per cent of the seats.
The decision to go for a bigger block to Parliament is probably partially a result of pressure exerted by the ordinary members, who are not content merely to a small percentage of the pie when the race is wide opensaid independent analyst Ibrahim El Houdaiby, a former member of the brotherhood.
The dissolution of Mubaraka€ ? s National Democratic Party has left the fraternity with an advantage over the rest of the opposition, which has not the Organization and discipline of the brotherhood.
But Mr. Houdaiby traces also the decision of the growing gap between the brotherhood and liberal secular groups since a constitutional referendum in February, when the two campaigned on the sides. As the gap is widening between the two parties, fraternity may feel he needs to win more seats to influence Parliament because it will be not able to create coalitions with such groups, said Houdaiby. "If you think you are on your own, on the other side of the game, then you must have more seats," he said.
Brotherhood has surprised many by winning approximately 20 per cent of parliamentary seats in the elections of 2005. Last year, the Mubarak regime ensured that the scenario did not repeat itself, and the elections have been regarded as the most fraudulent in recent history. Only a member of the brotherhood won a seat.
DIAA Rashwan, analyst at the Al Ahram Center for strategic studies, policies and calls for the decision to request as many seats an error which will be perceived as would represent by many Egyptians. The brotherhood has overestimated his own popularity and underestimated the strength of the sectors newly empowered population who discovered only political during the revolution, he said.
Organization of the Islamic Group has helped well it past votes, where turnout was low. If the participation rate is much higher than in September, organization of the group will be of lesser importance, said Dr. Rashwan. "The problem with their analysis is to underestimate the strength of the revolution." They have a very large number, and most of them have no Islamic feelings, "he says. "And now also for the average Egyptian, they have their fears and their doubts about the behaviour of the Salafi" extremely conservative Islamists, who have also benefited from the absence of Mubarak to enter the political scene. All these factors combined, said Rashwan, will mean that the brotherhood will not sweep elections in September.
The brotherhood says the freedom and the Justice Party will be independent of the religious organization, the leaders said, although he appointed personalities in the brotherhood to lead the party. And it prohibited the members of the brotherhood to join other parties. "People are feeling that it is first a political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, not an independent political party," said Rashwan.
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